Release Perfectionism to Restore Your Peace

I’ve had so many ideas lately that I wanted to blog about, but I kept getting caught up in my own perfectionism. I thought, “Oh, that’s a great idea! I’ll have to remember it. I don’t have time to write about it now because I don’t have the time to perfect it.” I can’t tell you how many ideas I let bounce around in my head because of that confining perfectionism.

I realized that allowing myself to be human and release those definitive thoughts is something not only I need to do, but may help many others as well. So I decided to just jump right in and start blogging about liberating ourselves from perfectionism and even if I run out of time I’m going to publish this as it is.

It’s amazing how freeing it is to release my personal expectations about feeling I need to be perfect. In some ways I feel scared, overwhelmed and even inadequate, but I am working to change those feelings by adjusting my inner self talk, “This is important to share and even without lots of time to tweak it I can do it well!”

I read a quote today that inspired all of this. It made me think that I need to also treat myself as I can be and allow myself to grow and be free of the bondage perfectionism demands.

“If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that”
~Goethe

When I read that I initially thought of others. I thought about how I can free my children and others I come in contact with by not expecting perfection in them. That is not to say I can’t encourage them to do their best, but by praising their efforts and commenting on their amazing growth I can treat them as though they already are what they are capable of becoming.

Everyone loves to be praised, and that is when I remembered we can even praise ourselves. We don’t have to literally say something uplifting aloud, although it is very powerful to hear your own voice saying wonderful things to yourself. We can simply think or read a positive affirmation and that will help internalize those messages.

Mary Kay Ash said that we should treat everyone as though they were wearing a button that said “Make me feel special!” If we all treated everyone we met as though they were the most important person we would meet that day, then everyone would feel so good about themselves that they’d spread that inner joy and peace to others and we’d all be happier because of it.

We can also treat ourselves like we’re special, and that is what this blog is all about.

Learning to care for yourself in a loving way.

Treating yourself like you’re worth spending time with.

Realizing that you deserve to do those things that make you feel
refreshed and renewed.

I hope that we all can learn to release perfectionism and be happy with our best efforts, that we can treat ourselves as the exceptional beings we are and let that self-love spread to others.